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California Enacts Military Spouse Leave Law (Effective Immediately)

Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed California Assembly Bill (AB) 392 into law. That bill creates a new leave of absence right for spouses of military personnel while those personnel are on a leave of absence from deployment.

Specifically, the military spouse law provides that:

• Employers with 25 or more employees in the United States to allow eligible employees to take up to 10-days off from work, on an unpaid basis, when his/her spouse is on leave from deployment during a period of military conflict;
  

• Eligible employees are defined as employees who work at least an average of 20 hours per week and whose spouse is a member of the United States Armed Forces, National Guard, or Army Reserve on active duty in an area of military conflict;
  

• Employees must provide notice to the employer within 2 business days of receiving official notice that his/her spouse will be on a leave from deployment.
  

It is important to note that it does not appear there are any circumstances under which an employer would be permitted to deny an employee's leave request. Accordingly, employers should be extremely careful in dealing with requests for leave under this new law.

Full post as published by California Labor & Employment Defense Blog on November 05, 2007 (boomark / email).